


Burned By a Curse

by Toaverse



Category: Onward (2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Battle, Burn Wounds, Burning to death, Character Death, Crying, Death, Fire, Gen, Ian Lightfoot Needs a Hug, so does Barley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:35:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24392878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toaverse/pseuds/Toaverse
Summary: Barley takes it upon himself to battle the Stone Dragon on his own while Ian talks to their dad.Things doesn’t go that well...(An AU where Barley takes on the dragon instead of Ian.)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 15





	Burned By a Curse

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this just shows that I quite suck at battle scenes :/
> 
> Get ready for some angst ;)
> 
> Enjoy!

The Lightfoot brothers stare at the result of the curse that their new Phoenix gem has brought them. A dragon, a dragon made out of stone peaces from most now-destroyed buildings of New Mushroomton. And the dragon is ready to destroy more.

Barley looks at the beast with a glare, knowing exactly what to do to defeat it.

“Ian, you stay with dad.” He says without looking at his brother. He begins to walk to the beast, ready to put an end to it. “Leave the dragon to me.”

Before Barley was out of arm reach, Ian grabs his arm, holding his brother back from putting himself in danger.

“But-“ but Ian is cut off by his older brother before he can even begin with his plead to switch places.

“No, go ahead and talk to dad.” Barley says, laying a hand on the younger’s shoulder to tell him that it’s okey. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

Ian hesitates, not knowing how in Yore Barley is going to stop the dragon without magic, but the hand on his shoulder calms him down a little.

“Just be careful...” the 16 year old says, looking his brother in the eyes. The older Lightfoot already ran to the dragon, yet turns around and gestures that he will while doing so.

‘Now, where’s that Curse Crusher.’ Barley thought, looking around for The Manticore’s sword while also keeping his guard up for the dragon. He knows that the weapon is somewhere, because his mom and The Manticore brought it with them. Barley eventually finds the sword laying on the ground with no other person in sight. ‘There!’

He grabs the weapon and turns around to face the dragon, who has all it’s attention to the Phoenix stone which is in Ian’s possession.

Barley’s mind is fully made up, before running to the beast.

He runs on the dragon’s tail and back, already seeing the center of its core. The beast doesn’t notice or feel anything besides the Phoenix stone it sees.

When Barley is in the core’s reach, he slams the sword into it as hard as he can. Yet, it isn’t enough to defeat the beast.

The dragon let out a roar as it feels the stab of the sword, turning away from Ian and Wilden as it tries to move around to shake the sword off.

As the dragon moves around, Barley tries pushing the sword deeper in while holding on to it tightly, but it still isn’t enough to destroy the stone being.

The older brother sees from a distance that Ian watches what’s happening with a worried look on his face, all while the visitation spell does its work and the top have of their dad start to slowly appear again.

“No, Ian! Focus on dad!” Barley calls out. Ian looks at their father, and then at his older brother, worry still in his eyes. “I’ll be okey! Just talk to dad!”

The 16 year old hesitates, wanting to help his older brother so badly, but he does as he’s told, yet still keeping his guard up.

Meanwhile, Barley tries and tries with all his might to defeat the destructive dragon, but it just isn’t enough. The dragon eventually tries to throw itself back to get the sword out of its core, and it worked.

Barley falls hard on the ground, along with the Curse Crusher a distance away from him. He tries to grab the sword to try the same thing again, but he never got the chance.

The elf glares at the dragon for just a second, before he sees the beast spew fire towards him, and then he also feels it.

For just one second, Barley can’t feel it when his entire body is on fire, but the pain catches up soon enough.

The extreme and agonizing burning feeling is all the elf feels. Everywhere and anywhere on his body. And it hurts, it hurts to the point that Barley can’t think of anything else anymore, only the pain and fire that literally burns his skin. And as expected, Barley screams his lungs out as he feels every single inch of his skin burn.

The dragon stops spewing, yet its victim is still on fire, slowly and painfully burning away.

It’s awful, the agonizing burning pain is awful, yet Barley can’t do anything about it. He lays there, broken, not being able to move as the fire destroys his skin, burning deeper and deeper in his flesh.

The pain feels it will go on forever, but Barley feels himself getting light-headed, as well as seeing a bright white that can blind him, despite having his eyes shut. The pain still went on, eventually reaching his throat, burning it and his airways to shreds.

It is then that the elf feels himself passing out, the pain fading away as well, but then for good.

All there’s left of the good-hearted quester was a horribly burned body, caused by the destructive beast.

•+•

Ian stares at the man who he has just brought back to life with almost disbelieve in his eyes, the man he has always wanted to meet.

His dad.

Before Ian can even say “Hi, dad.” to him, the stone dragon lets out a roar, coming in their direction.

Ian turns his attention towards the beast. ‘Where the heck are you, Barley?!’ He thought, focusing his sight on the background, which is burning in flames, looking for his older brother.

Seeing the destructive dragon still around, and not being able to locate Barley, Ian takes matters into his own hands.

“Dad, I-“ the 16 year old starts his sentence, pointing at the dragon. However, he isn’t able to finish, as Ian feels a comforting hand on his shoulder, and a nod, both coming from his dad.

It’s enough for Ian to jump into action.

The boy gives a sure nod as an answer, before going off to fight the beast.

The first thing Ian thought in thing is to cast a spell to distract the dragon. A Voltar Thundasir will do it, but he failed at it the last time he did that spell. Uncertainty rises in the 16 year old as he runs as far away from the dragon with his staff in hands to distract it, but he knows he has to.

“Voltar Thundasir!” Ian shouts, quickly turning around to strike the stone being.

The beast couldn’t even react before it sees lightning coming right at him and strikes it in the eyes. It roars out of pain, shutting its eyes.

Ian looks around some more with his eyes, trying to find the sword. His eyes eventually land on the weapon, laying on the ground.

The boy can’t feel any more relieved. He runs to the weapon, knowing exactly what he’s gonna do.

“Aloft Elevar!” Ian calls out with all his heart’s fire, still being a few meters away from the sword. He quickly looks over to the dragon, who’s core is in sight.

The elf doesn’t hesitate for a moment. He lifts the weapon up with the spell he just called out, and throws it at the dragon’s core with all the strength he has. Luckily, the weapon went through the core. The dragon let out a roar of defeat, slowly falling apart.

The dragon is defeated.

Ian lets out a sigh of relief and tiredness, as he looks at all the broken stone peaces laying on the ground, as well as a part of the area still being on fire.

He looks over at the rock his dad stood when Ian last saw him, but he sees no one...

‘He disappeared already...?’

It makes the 16 year old quite sad that he didn’t get to talk to his dad properly, but he already had accepted that. He still has barley after all.

Speaking of which...

‘Where in Yore did Barley go?’ The young wizard thought, looking around the area to look for his brother. 

“Barley? Barley, where are you?” Ian calls out, hoping that nothing had happend when he was with dad. “Barley-“

His eyes land on a corps that’s laying on the ground, all burned up from the flames of the dragon. It took a few seconds for Ian to realize who that once was.

“No!” The boy runs as fast as he could to his brother’s body, wanting desperately to know if he’s still alive. 

The 16 year old kneels with both knees in front of the burned corps, his heart jumping in his throat as he sees the sight much clearer.

Every single part of Barley’s body is burned. Burn wounds of the fire are crystal clear to see, all swollen and red. It’s absolutely horrific...

“Barley! Barley, PLEASE wake up!” Ian pleads, trying to shake his brother awake, but with no success. He then lays his hand on the older elf’s neck, not caring about the heat of the fire still being there as Ian checks for a puls. “Please...”

He finds none...

“N-no no no no! Please, don’t leave me!” Ian begs again, not wanting to believe that his brother is dead.

But the realization sinks in anyways.

Thick tears and sobs make their way out of Ian, which soon turns into crying. He didn’t even had the chance to say that Barley had always be there for him, and that he’s thankful for that.

Then it truly sinks in.

Ian just lost his big brother, and father figure, just like that... to a stupid curse...

**Author's Note:**

> T-T


End file.
